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How to Use Mobile UC to Increase Productivity and Reduce Mobile Costs

There are a lot of reasons to adopt a mobile unified communications solution. Sometimes all a company really needs is one good reason. Ross Teague, director of ITEC Intelligent Services, helps a rugby club save wireless costs by bringing in unified communications.

My company, ITEC Intelligent Services, is very focused on matching businesses with a mobile solution that helps them be more competitive. We have already found several ideal candidates among hospitals, schools and hotels for one of our favorite emerging technologies: mobile UC (unified communications). These types of businesses need to lower mobile communications costs through increased productivity and reduced cell plan costs. But one of our customers, a rugby club, is turning out to be an unexpectedly perfect fit.

This rugby club has an interesting challenge to explain because the entity in question is a sports team. However, the pain points are common to businesses around the world. Because the club's players are recruited from other countries, the club's long-distance calling charges are astronomical. Also, the nearly 50 stewards (the folks who help fans find their seats) must constantly use their mobile phones to do their jobs. Because of this, they rack up tons of minutes. Stewards start using their mobile phones an hour before a game and they don't stop again until an hour after it's finished.

Address Astronomical Cell Phone Costs

To address these cost issues, the rugby club investigated a number of solutions. As a result, they have decided to employ the DiVitas Mobile UC solution throughout the rugby stadium, in the clubhouse and in the players' apartments. Once this employment is done, the players will be in range of a wireless network about 70 percent of the time. This means that their calls will be placed mostly over free Wi-Fi versus costly cellular.

Further reading

At the same time, the stewards will be in Wi-Fi range 100 percent of the time. After factoring the cost of the solution against cost savings, the club anticipates achieving an ROI within seven to nine months.

Assess the Environment Before Deployment

While the rugby club demonstrated a clear need for a mobile UC solution, there was a formal process we went through to better understand their requirements and environment. These steps apply to any environment rolling out the DiVitas Mobile UC solution-whether it's a professional club dedicated to a 150-year-old sport or an international bank.

What is the challenge? First off, we need to qualify the requirement in terms of a company's pain points. While the rugby club is focused on cost savings, most businesses are also considering such a solution for increased productivity and control over issues such as policy compliance. This is why mobile UC is such a good fit for industries such as health care, education, hospitality, retail and manufacturing.

Employees in these industries are highly mobile and need to be constantly reachable by either voice, e-mail or other messaging applications such as instant messaging. Also, they need to have their availability broadcasted with presence. They need to be able to be contacted via a single business number, which resides on a single mobile phone that behaves exactly like a desk phone (except that it's mobile).